From https://sources.debian.org/src/user-setup/1.88/user-setup-ask/#L36,it seems the installer will ask for the root password if
Hi,
I want to set the root password to a random string. this is the preseed I use:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
pw="$(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 24)"; \
debconf-set passwd/root-password "$pw"; \
debconf-set passwd/root-password-again "$pw"
However, the installer still prompts me for the root password.
Setting the crypted password works though:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
debconf-set passwd/root-password-crypted '<crypted-string>'
Directly setting the password also works:
d-i passwd/root-password password r00tme
d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme
From https://sources.debian.org/src/user-setup/1.88/user-setup-ask/#L36,
it seems the installer will ask for the root password if root-password-crypted is empty or !. My guess is that in the direct
version, somehow root-password-crypted gets a corresponding value when
only root-password and root-password-again are set, but I couldn't
find the code responsible for that.
I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light.
On Feb 16, 2022, at 6:01 AM, Geert Stappers <stappers@stappers.nl> wrote:
On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 08:08:08PM +0800, Glen Huang wrote:
Hi,
I want to set the root password to a random string. this is the preseed I use:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
pw="$(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 24)"; \
debconf-set passwd/root-password "$pw"; \
debconf-set passwd/root-password-again "$pw"
However, the installer still prompts me for the root password.
Setting the crypted password works though:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
debconf-set passwd/root-password-crypted '<crypted-string>'
Directly setting the password also works:
d-i passwd/root-password password r00tme
d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme
From https://sources.debian.org/src/user-setup/1.88/user-setup-ask/#L36,
it seems the installer will ask for the root password if
root-password-crypted is empty or !. My guess is that in the direct
version, somehow root-password-crypted gets a corresponding value when
only root-password and root-password-again are set, but I couldn't
find the code responsible for that.
I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light.
Completely UNtested, a.k.a. sharing a thought:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 24 > /tmp/pw ; \
cat /tmp/pw | debconf-set passwd/root-password - ; \
cat /tmp/pw | debconf-set passwd/root-password-again -
Groeten
Geert Stappers
Not knowing how much of the early_command_string gets into log file.
--
Silence is hard to parse
On Feb 16, 2022, at 9:52 AM, Glen Huang <heyhgl@gmail.com> wrote:special handling for password type.
Thanks for the tip.
I’m not sure if escaping is the issue. I tried directly specifying the password:
debconf-set passwd/root-password passwd1234
debconf-set passwd/root-password-again passwd1234
Still got prompted.
I tried to debug it with
d-i preseed/early_command string \
set -x; \
. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule; \
db_set passwd/root-password passwd1234; \
db_set passwd/root-password-again passwd1234; \
db_input critical passwd/root-password
And the syslog shows RET='value set’ for db_set passwd/root-password, and RET='question will be asked’ for db_input critical passwd/root-password.
It seems the password type is somehow specially handled and could’t be set this way? But very strange that it works when specifying "d-i passwd/root-password password …” in preseed to set it. I’m still unable to locate the code that does the
On Feb 16, 2022, at 6:01 AM, Geert Stappers <stappers@stappers.nl> wrote:
On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 08:08:08PM +0800, Glen Huang wrote:
Hi,
I want to set the root password to a random string. this is the preseed I use:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
pw="$(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 24)"; \
debconf-set passwd/root-password "$pw"; \
debconf-set passwd/root-password-again "$pw"
However, the installer still prompts me for the root password.
Setting the crypted password works though:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
debconf-set passwd/root-password-crypted '<crypted-string>'
Directly setting the password also works:
d-i passwd/root-password password r00tme
d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme
From https://sources.debian.org/src/user-setup/1.88/user-setup-ask/#L36, >>> it seems the installer will ask for the root password if
root-password-crypted is empty or !. My guess is that in the direct
version, somehow root-password-crypted gets a corresponding value when
only root-password and root-password-again are set, but I couldn't
find the code responsible for that.
I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light.
Completely UNtested, a.k.a. sharing a thought:
d-i preseed/early_command string \
tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 24 > /tmp/pw ; \
cat /tmp/pw | debconf-set passwd/root-password - ; \
cat /tmp/pw | debconf-set passwd/root-password-again -
Groeten
Geert Stappers
Not knowing how much of the early_command_string gets into log file.
--
Silence is hard to parse
Thanks to Cyril Brulebois’s tip that I could use DEBCONF_DEBUG to debug debconf, I found out the seen flag should be set in order for db_input to pick up the value.
Case solved, thanks to everyone helped!
On Feb 16, 2022, at 4:38 PM, Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote:
Glen Huang <heyhgl@gmail.com> writes:
Thanks to Cyril Brulebois’s tip that I could use DEBCONF_DEBUG to debug debconf, I found out the seen flag should be set in order for db_input to pick up the value.
Case solved, thanks to everyone helped!
I was wondering about that, but didn't see my code setting lots of seen flags, so wasn't sure.
I now realise that the reason for that is that I generally preseed the
things I don't want to be asked, even if I'm going to set them via
script, and the act of preseeding them to a place-holder value also sets
the seen flag. Then you get to override that in a script without
worrying about also setting the seen flag at that point.
Cheers, Phil.
--
|)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] HANDS.COM Ltd.
|-| http://www.hands.com/ http://ftp.uk.debian.org/
|(| Hugo-Klemm-Strasse 34, 21075 Hamburg, GERMANY
On Feb 16, 2022, at 4:38 PM, Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote:
Glen Huang <heyhgl@gmail.com> writes:
Thanks to Cyril Brulebois’s tip that I could use DEBCONF_DEBUG
to debug debconf, I found out the seen flag should be set in order
for db_input to pick up the value.
Case solved, thanks to everyone helped!
I was wondering about that, but didn't see my code setting lots of seen flags, so wasn't sure.
I now realise that the reason for that is that I generally preseed the things I don't want to be asked, even if I'm going to set them via
script, and the act of preseeding them to a place-holder value also sets the seen flag. Then you get to override that in a script without
worrying about also setting the seen flag at that point.
Setting a placeholder value is a great idea, it simplifies the
early_command since the seen flag no longer needs to be set.
Thanks for the tip Philip.
On Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 04:52:48PM +0800, Glen Huang wrote:
On Feb 16, 2022, at 4:38 PM, Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote:
Glen Huang <heyhgl@gmail.com> writes:
Thanks to Cyril Brulebois’s tip that I could use DEBCONF_DEBUG
to debug debconf, I found out the seen flag should be set in order
for db_input to pick up the value.
Case solved, thanks to everyone helped!
I was wondering about that, but didn't see my code setting lots of seen flags, so wasn't sure.
I now realise that the reason for that is that I generally preseed the things I don't want to be asked, even if I'm going to set them via script, and the act of preseeding them to a place-holder value also sets the seen flag. Then you get to override that in a script without worrying about also setting the seen flag at that point.
Setting a placeholder value is a great idea, it simplifies the early_command since the seen flag no longer needs to be set.
Thanks for the tip Philip.
Thank your future self by sharing your solution with the mailinglist.
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